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How important is the avatar?

Now, there’s a good question, in our brand aware world – does your photo make a difference to – not only how you are approached – but whether you get cited?

Can an academic’s profile picture on a university website influence their citation record or their student survey results? Psychologists have posed that question in a journal article suggesting that scholars “reveal more about ourselves than we think”.

When cognitive neuroscientist Owen Churches took up a post as a research fellow at the University of South Australia, delays in setting up a laboratory led him to devise research that could be done without one. He was asked to submit a photograph for the university’s website and wondered whether he had unwittingly picked one designed “to give an impression of being more scientific and less emotional” – and whether others did the same.

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By Digital Fingerprint

Digiexplorer (not guru), Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing @ Manchester Metropolitan University. Interested in digital literacy and digital culture  in the third sector (especially faith). Author of 'Raising Children in a Digital Age', regularly checks hashtag #DigitalParenting.

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